Who called Roy De Forest an “obscure visual constructor of mechanical delights?” He did. The delights he constructed generally involved dogs, cartoon faces with eminent noses, and eyes that look right through you. Their visual language was defiantly folk art.

The child of migrant farmworkers, De Forest (American, 1930–2007) painted Hopperesque landscapes before moving to San Francisco. There, after experimenting with nonfigurative art, he joined a rebellion against abstract expressionism and determined to use paint to create an alternative world.

For nearly thirty years he taught at the University of California at Davis, a revered instructor who challenged young artists to explore their imaginations, to create their own alternatives to
the familiar.

Contains five each of the following notecards:
Canis Prospectus, 1986
Meditations on the Horse-Dog Problem, 2003
Campfire by Moonlight, 1986
A Decoy for the Lonely Ponies, 1981